Means for extending and thickening leaf-sheets.



No. 7|4,7l3. r Patented Dec. 2, i902.

A. 0. &. E. R. KITTREDGE.

MEANS FOR EXTENDING AND THICKENING LEAF SHEETS.

- (Application filed Aug. 18, 1899.)

(No Model.)

Q/www, $01.9

NITE

ANSON O. KITTREDGE AND ERNEST R. KITTREDGE, OF TENAFLY, NEW JERSEY; SAID ANSON O. KITTREDGE ASSIGNOR TO ACCOUNT, AUDIT & ASSURANCE COMPANY, LIMITED, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPO- RATION OF NEW JERSEY.

MEANS FOR EXTENDING AND THICKENING LEAF-SHEETS.

SPECIFICATION formingpart of Letters Patent N 0. 714,713, dated. December 2, 1902.

Application filed August 18,1899. Serial No. 727,718. (No specimens.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that we, ANsoN O. KITTREDGE and ERNEST R. KITTREDGE, citizens of the United States, residing at Tenafly, county of Bergen, State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Means for Extending and Thickening Leaf- Sheets, fully described and represented in the following specification and the accompanying drawings, forming a part of the same.

The presentinvention relates to that class of record-sheets or blank-books in which certain of the leaves are made wider than others to furnish a projecting margin upon which guiding-entries or permanent entries may be made to guide the writer in the insertion of subsequent entries upon the narrow leaves; and the object of the invention is to furnish an improved means of thickening the margin of the Wide leaves or widenin g the narrow leaves of a book at intervals. Such thickening is common in such constructions for the purpose partly of filling up the edge of the book between the covers and partly to bring the writing-surface upon the wide leaf approximately fiush with the surfaces of the narrow leaves.

In an application, Serial No; 727,711, filed August 18, 1899, by E. R. Kittredge, for patent on a record-leaf with thickened edge, claim has been made to the thickening of the leaf edge by folding over an integral flap from the edge of the wide leaf and securing it upon the face of the leaf; but such a construction necessitates the use in forming the wide leaves of paper which is wider than the covers of the book, and the present invention is designed to obviate the use of such wide paper in the formation of the'wider leaves and also to furnish a means of constructing the wide leaves with paper but little wider than the narrow leaves of the book.

The invention comprises a thickener formed separate from the leaf-sheet and attached to the margin of the same, by which means the thickening is effected without any original extension of the leaf edge. The

thickener may be formed of the same kind of paper as the leaf-sheet, so as to form a writ ing-surface, and the margin of the thickener may be provided with a lip for attachment to the leaf edge. The thickener in such case forms an extension of the leaf, by which leaves but little wider than the narrow leaves of the book are extended by the width of the thickener. The thickener may be of solid con struction or formed with a flat pocket to receive fillers of any desired thickness. The connected parts of the leaf and thickener are preferably formed with a shoulder to determine the position of the thickener upon the leaf and to gage its projection from the edge of the leaf. By the use of thickeners having uniform width, and thus gaged in their attachment to the leaf edge, certain of the narrow leaves may be converted into a series of wide leaves of uniform width, and a bookhaving occasional wide leaves may be primarily formed entirely of narrow leaves. This method of widening leaves obviously furnishes great economy in the construction of the book, as the thickener serves also as an extension of the leaf and may be constructed of comparatively narrow strips or scraps of paper, while a book formed of integral wide leaves would involve the use of larger paper. The use of thickeners for extending leaves also furnishes a means of readily preparing (from the same stock) books with wide and narrow leaves for a variety of purposes or having wide leaves variously disposed therein.

Account-books with wide and narrow leaves vary greatly in their character, according to the uses for which they are intended. If the wide leaves are integral, the book must be made to order, whereas by the present invention books with the narrow leaves may be carried in stock and the extensions applied to r the required leaves at short notice and at very slight expense. The extensions upon the occasional leaves in the book thus serve not only to widen the same, but to thicken the projecting portion of the extended leaves to compensate for the thickness of the intermediate short leaves.

The invention also facilitates the economical construction of special books having wide and narrow leaves, as such a book may be primarily formed of sections each consisting.

of a group of narrow leaves, with one of such leaves extended by an attached thickener adapted to compensate for the disconnected leaves in one section.

In many books having wide and narrow leaves it is desirable to furnish the wide leaf with acolumn of line-numbers 0r guide-marks which are visible adjacent to the outer edges of the narrow leaves as they are turned over successively upon the wider leaf.

Where the thickener is joined to the edge of one of the narrow leaves by a lip, the inner edge of the thickener is held a little way from the outer edges of the narrow leaves, which forms a blank space between the wide leaves at the inner edge of each thickener when the book is closed, and the column of numbers or guide-marks may be imprinted upon the wide leaf in such blank space.

' These improvements will be understood by reference to the annexed drawings, in which the proportions of the parts are exaggerated for the sake of clearness.

Figure 1 represents a portion of the outer edge of a wide leaf withthe edges of adjacent narrow leaves and the edge of the wide leaf thickened by a strip folded to embrace the margin of the wide leaf. Fig. 2 shows a thickener provided with a lip attached to the leaf edge. Fig. 3 shows a strip folded to form a flat pocket and having lips embracing the opposite sides of the leaf edge. Fig. 4 shows a strip folded to form a flat pocket with lips of unequal length and the longer one secured to one side of the leaf edge. Fig. 5 shows the same construction with a shoulder formed upon the leaf edge to gage the attachment of the lip. Fig. 6 shows a thickener like that represented in Fig. 1, embracing the edge only of the sheet to be extended, and the interior of the fold or pocket containing a filler, which gages the application of the thickener to the leaf. Fig. 7 is a perspective view of one fillerg-and Fig. 8 is an end view of a book, showing upon leaves at the left-hand side thickeners like that represented in Fig. 3 and upon leaves at the right-hand side thickeners like that shown in Fig. 2.

All of the thickeners shown are formed separated from the leaf and attached to its margin upon one or both of its opposite sides, and in each construction except that shown in Fig. 1 the thickener serves to convert a narrow leaf into a wide leaf by extending the thickener c.

the narrow leaves are shown only in Figs. 1 and 3, of number corresponding to the thickness of the adjacent thickener; but the thickeners in the other figures are drawn of various dimensions, as they would in practice be made to suit the requirements of the book.

In Fig. 1 the wide leaf 1) is shown made primarily of the required width, and the thickener consists of a fold of paper, pasteboard, or other material of requisite thickness slipped over the edge of the wide leaf and secured thereto.

In Fig. 2 the thickener c is formed with a lip d at one edge to extend a narrow leaf, and the latter is formed with an offset or shoulder g to gage the position of the thickener upon the leaf and its projection from the leaf.

The thickener in Fig. 1 projects equally upon each side of the leaf, and thus compensates for an equal number of the short leaves a as they lie upon each side of the wide leaf; but such a thickener does not furnish a smooth writing-surface upon either side of the leaf. The lip d in Fig. 2 is shown flush with one-side of the thickener, and the offset in the leaf 1) makes such side flush with on side of the leaf.

In Fig. 3 the thickener is formed of paper folded to produce a flat pocket with lips d (1, both ofiset to hold the leaf at the middle of the pockets thickness. A filler h is shown in the pocket, and its inner edge serves as a gage to contact with the edge of the leaf 1) when the pocket is secured upon the leaf.

Fig. 4% shows a pocket similar to that in Fig. 3, with the lip 61 extended beyond the lip d for attachment to the leaf edge. For making up books with occasional wide leaves the thickeners would be manufactured of suitable dimensions for attachment to the leaf edge, and when the wide and narrow lips are secured together the inner edge of the narrow lip forms a gage to set the thickener against the edge of the leaf 2).

Fig. 5 shows a thickener similar to that in Fig. 4, and the leaf provided with the offset 9, which serves to gage the application of the thickener to the leaf and also to produce a flush writing-surface Where the lip is secured upon the leaf.

Fig. 6 shows a plain folded thickener like that in Fig. 1, employed to extend a narrow leaf by inserting between the two sides of the thickener a filler h, which would be of the same thickness as the leafand serves to gage the extension of the thickener beyond the leaf edge.

' A thick filler is shown in Fig. 7 and may be made of any suitable length, width, and thickness of paper, pasteboard, or other suitable material. The leaves at the left-hand side of the book in Fig. 8 are extended by the means shown in Fig. 3 by a thickener having lips secured upon opposite edges of the leaf edge, and thewide leaves at the right-hand side of the book are extended by the means shown in Fig. 2.

With both constructions the lips lie wholly outside the edges of the narrow leaves a, and the'inner edge of the thickener is thus separated from the edges of the narrow leaves by .IIO

a space e, which appears merely when the book is closed or the sections lie in contact, as shown at the right-hand side of Fig. 8.

The surface of the wide leaf just inside the thickener, which is represented by the lip d in Fig. 3, is thus always exposed beyond the edges of the narrow leaves and may be used, as is common in account-books, to receive a column of guide-numbers, as shown in Fig. 3, the narrow leaves being ruled in correspondence with such numbers.

The guide-numbers being permanently attached to the leaf which bears the thickener serves to guide the insertion of entries upon all the narrow leaves corresponding with the data upon the margin of the wide leaf adjacent to the numbers.

From the above description it will be readily seen that the manufacture of books having wide and narrow leaves is greatly facilitated by forming the thickener separate from the sheet and attaching it thereto.

It is immaterial how the thickener is attached to the edge of the sheet; but that portion of the thickener which overlaps upon the sheet constitutes a lip for attaching it thereto, and I have used the term lip in the claims to denote such portion of the thickener irrespective of its constructive features. ener may be provided with two lips, as shown in Figs. 3 and 6, to embrace opposite sides of the leaf edge, and such lips may be thinner than the entirethickness of the margin, as shown in Fig. 3, or they may be of the same thickness as the entire thickener, which occurs when the thickener is formed of a single fold, as shown in Fig. 6. By forming the thickener with a shoulder to contact with the leaf edge the thickeners may be attached to the leaves with much greater rapidity and project from the same with entire uniformity, so that all the widened leaves may be'of exactly the same width when grouped together in a book.

The use of extension-thickeners projected beyond the initial margins of the leaves secures a great economy in the construction of the books, as it wholly avoids the waste which is incurred if all the leaves are first made wide and certain of the leaves trimmed to make them narrower.

We are aware that books having leaves of uniform width have been provided with indeX-tags by folding pieces of leather or paper adapted each for a single tag and attaching its lips to the opposite sides of the leaf edge at the desired point. Such tag is analogous in construction to our thickener, but totally different in function, as it does not compensate for intermediate leaves; but, on the contrary, being applied to leaves of uniform width, the lips of the tags operate to crowd the edges of the leaves uncomfortably apart where the lips are inserted bet-ween such leaves.

Our construction includes groups of narrow The thickextended by the means we have described, and our thickener serves to make the edges of the wider leaves of the same thickness as the body of the book. Our invention difiiers also from the tag referred to in that all the thickeners in each book extend the entire length of the leaf, so as to thicken its entire edge, and thus furnish a support for the hand in writing upon the adjacent surface of the narrow leaves.

From the above remarks it will be understood that our invention includes a book having' certainleaves thickened upon the edge to compensate for narrower leaves, and also a book unit comprising in a group a series of narrow leaves, leaves slightly wider than the narrow leaves, and extension-strips attached to such .wider leaves to make such leaves still wider and to thicken them in correspondence with the group of narrow leaves.

Having thus set forth the nature of the invention, what is claimed herein isl. A book having certain leaves thickened upon the edge to compensate for narrower leaves, and the thickener being formed of folded paper separate from the leaves, of the same length as the leaf edge, and provided with means for attachment to the entire margin of the leaf.

2. A book having certain leaves thickened upon the edge to compensate for narrower leaves, and the thickener being formed of folded paper separate from the leaf, of the same length as the leaf edge, and provided with a flat hollow pocket and with a lip for attachment to the margin of the leaf.

3. A book having certain leaves thickened upon the edge to compensate for narrower leaves, and the thickener being formed of folded paper separate from the leaf, of the same length as the leaf edge, and provided with a hollow pocket to insert a filler and having two lips embracing and secured to the opposte sides of the leaf edge.

4:. A book having certain leaves thickened upon the edge to compensate for narrower leaves, and the thickener being formed of folded paper separate from the leaf of the same length as the leaf edge, and provided with a hollow pocket having therein a filler thicker than the leaf, and having a lip for attachment to the entire leaf edge.

5. In abook having groups of narrow leaves with intermediate leaves having thickened edges, the combination, with a leaf of the book, of a pocket of the same length as the leaf edge, secured upon and projected from its entire edge to widen such leaf, and to re ceive a filler adapted to compensate for a group of the narrow leaves.

6. A book formed primarily of leaves all of them narrower than the cover, and having certain of such leaves extended substantially to the edge of the cover by attached strips of uniform width.

7. A book unit comprising in a group a series of narrow leaves, leaves slightly wider than the narrow leaves, and extension-strips attached to such wider leaves, and having each a hollow pocket to receive a filler and a lip for securing it to the edge of the leaf.

8. As a new article of manufacture, a series of leaves for use in the manufacture of account-books, such leaves being extended upon one edge by a thickener of the same length as the leaf edge and secured upon and projecting from the entire edge of the leaf.

9. As a new article of manufacture, wide and narrow leaves prepared to bind into books, the wide leaves being primarily of the same width as the narrow leaves and having the width extended bya thickener of the same length as the leaf edge, and secured upon and projecting from such entire edge.

In testimony whereof we have hereunto set our hands in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

ANSON o. KlTTREDGE. ERNEST R. KITTREDGE.

Witnesses:

JOHN J. MCBRIDE, THOMAS S. CRANE. 

